Spurned by BJP, Bishnoi's HJC cosies up to Congress in Haryana

New Delhi: As hard they may try to stay away from each other, circumstances keep throwing them back into each other’s arms. That’s how the story has been so far for the Congress and Kuldeep Bishnoi-led Haryana Janhit Congress (HJC) in Haryana. The script looks to repeat itself in the upcoming assembly polls. The HJC lies stranded after the BJP gave its the cold shoulder despite a proposal for an alliance, and the Congress is a shadow of its former self at the moment. But if they don’t come together, both could sink. The equations seem to be changing faster than ever before, especially after the Lok Sabha election gave the BJP an astounding 282 seats. In Haryana, the BJP won seven out of the eight seats it contested, while its partner HJC lost both the other seats, with Bishnoi losing from Hissar. With elections due in October, the BJP is now fancying its chances of coming to power on its own in the state. It is encouraged by the fact that it secured 35 percent of vote share, the highest by any party. The results were also a rude wake up call to OP Chautala’s Indian National Lok Dal (INLD) and the Congress which polled around 25 percent and 22 percent of the vote share respectively. The Congress had polled around 42 percent in the 2009 parliamentary elections in the state. “The general elections threw up a totally unexpected result in favour of the BJP, but the ground realities are changing,” Randeep Singh Surjewala, national spokesperson of the Congress and senior minister in the Haryana government, said. “As far as Haryana is concerned, there is no reason why the Congress cannot come to power for a third time. Our governance track record is good,” he added with confidence. [caption id=“attachment_1692583” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  Bishnoi is fighting with his back to the wall. Picture courtesy: Bishnoi’s official site[/caption] But this confidence could be misplaced, as the Congress is clearly floundering on the ground. In the 2009 assembly election, HJC had 10 percent vote share and it had won six seats. The Congress was willing to accept most of Bishnoi’s demands as they were a few short of simple majority in the 90-member House. But Bishnoi bargained so hard that the Congress found it easier to bargain with his MLAs, resulting in five joining the Congress, leaving Bishnoi high and dry. Even though HJC couldn’t win a single seat in Parliament this time, a BJP-HJC alliance, in all likelihood, would have swept the state. The problem for Bishnoi remains the same. He keeps demanding too much. “What was wrong in accepting 25 seats being offered by the BJP? The HJC could well have won 16-20 seats and been a power to reckon with in the state,” says a senior Congress leader, on condition of anonymity. “Bishnoi is driven by only one ambition and that is the post of chief minister. Which is why the alliance is over and he (Bishnoi) has ended up on the losing side,” he said. But Bishnoi is not giving up yet. He has opened back channel communications with the Congress and the talks have been on for over a month now. Hooda realises that Congress will not be able to pull through on its own, and his biggest worry is that the INLD should not come to power. The Chautalas coming to power could well mean many enquiries being set up against the current regime with Hooda being at the receiving end. Therefore it makes perfect political sense to work towards an unofficial, but tactical alliance, that could help him achieve his goal. The Congress, however, remains mum on these developments. Hooda himself has been ruling out any alliance, saying: “The only alliance that is strong is that of the Congress Party. Other ‘Gathbandhans’ or ‘Thugbandhans’ are meaningless.” Kuldeep Bishnoi has been smarting ever since he lost the Hissar seat to Chautala’s grandson Dushyant in May this year and his party polled a poor 6 percent vote share. The dominant Jats form almost 25 percent of the populace while the remaining 75 percent has remained at the mercy of the Jat chief ministers from Chautala to Hooda for the past 18 years. A BJP-HJC alliance would have easily given the ideal platform for the non Jats to come together, but now the vote is likely to be divided between them. The Congress is now trying to convince HJC to form a strategy to play spoiler for the INLD in their strongholds such as Hissar, Sirsa, Jind and Bhiwani. A tactical alliance between the two could help Hooda neutralise the INLD, and Bishnoi could get the satisfaction of humbling the BJP in some areas with tacit support of the Congress. With more old faces joining the BJP, confusion and infighting could well be the saffron party’s undoing. Bishnoi has also tied up with former Congress leader and one of Hooda’s closest aides at one time, Venod Sharma, who has launched his own outfit Haryana Jan Chetna Party (HJP). They are trying to rope in smaller parties like Haryana Lokhit Party, led by former minister Gopal Kanda. The biggest reason for HJC opting for smaller regional parties is that it gives them the leverage and importance of being the biggest fish in the small pond. That will ensure that Bishnoi has no contender for the top post. He may even try to reach out to the BSP to form a grand alliance. But that could prove to be tough. Bishnoi lashed out at the BJP when the alliance was called off. “They have betrayed Bansi Lal, Devi Lal and Om Prakash Chautala in the past. They have made it a habit,” he said. He had also taken on the Congress for ignoring development work in North Haryana earlier. So far he has refrained from spelling out his chief ministerial ambitions, but he is banking on reports that Haryana could be headed towards a hung assembly. But the flip side is that HJC is fighting a battle of survival with its back to the wall. The Congress may also have realised that it has little choice but to play along with them.